


Death and Mentos

by armario



Category: Designated Survivor (TV)
Genre: Claustrophobia, F/M, Gen, Me Paraphrasing, Spoilers for 2x14 "In The Dark", elevator scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 22:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14388717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armario/pseuds/armario
Summary: Being stuck in a small space with Lyor Boone of all people was not on Emily's top ten to do list.





	Death and Mentos

 

 Being stuck in a small space with Lyor Boone of all people was  
not on Emily's top ten to do list.   She has a lot more patience for him than certain others, but she thought she would have coped with it all better than this.

 Lyor keeps making jokes and being infuriatingly still. She's just trying to keep it together. After a few minutes of shouting, the awful realisation dawns that no one can hear her, in the form of his matter of fact, more than slightly smug tones.

 She can feel the panic creeping up on her, so she starts fiddling with the elevator controls, praying that she's not just making a fool of herself. Between each twist of the wire, her brain puts out the suggestion that she could die here. It's not likely, logic tells her in a familiar voice that isn't her own.

 She counters helplessly with  _but it's possible._

 Lyor helps her call for help which makes it worse because he's  
supposed to be standing there laughing at her, not joining in with her panic.

 Emily slides down onto the floor in defeat and notices absently that her hands are shaking. Lyor mimics her, but as usual he is calm and on the whole amused by the situation.

 "Emily?" he asks, after a moment.

 She looks up, presumably like a deer in headlights.

 "You're..." he frowns, "... breathing unnaturally."

 "I wonder why that could be," she snaps acidly. The outburst makes her feel worse, blinking back stupid, stupid tears. She doesn't need to look back up to visualize the expression on his face. To be trapped here with Lyor... waxing poetic about death and mentos... he could at least-

_What if no one ever finds you?_

 Emily takes a deep, shuddering breath and suppresses a sob, clearly not as effectively as she'd aimed.

"Oh, Emily," Lyor says uncertainly. "Do you want... do you-"

 Swallowing her pride, she shuffles over to his corner. He takes the hint and puts an arm around her, so she curls up as closely as possible to try and forget about the situation.

 Half expecting him to laugh at her or psychoanalyze her predictable, illogical behavior, she scrunches her eyes shut and mumbles into his side, "If you ever bring this up, I will-"

 "-Flay me alive, I understand. I like where your priorities lie."

 Lyor starts patting her shoulder awkwardly and if it wasn't so soothing she'd mock his hopeless attempt at comfort. If she wasn't about to break down if he moved away just for even one second, she might find it in herself to laugh.

 "Now if your fear of elevators was kept in the dark- pun intended- I'd say you were very pragmatic. To the point where I think you could end up in a position of even greater power."

 She wants to let his composed voice lull her into calm, but the implication makes her curious.

 "What are you saying?"

 "You'd have to run for lower office first, obviously. Congress, a statehouse, you know-"

 "Lyor, can you pretend like you know how to have a conversation with another human being?" She kind of tightens her grip around his waist to show she's kidding. Maybe. He continues as though she said or did nothing, or his hand isn't covering hers. 

 "I'm saying you could be President."

It's not until later, way after the lights come on and he makes absolutely no move to shift her, when they've gone back to the office and made assurances that they're okay, and she's now lying in bed relieving the whole ordeal- she comes to the conclusion that Lyor is definitely not the worst person to be stuck in a confined space with.

 In fact, he's actually one of the best.

**Author's Note:**

> I seriously don't think anyone on this Earth loves Lyor more than I do.


End file.
